It has been said that time heals all wounds. I don't agree. The wounds remain. Time - the mind, protecting its sanity - covers them with some scar tissue and the pain lessens, but it is never gone. -Rose Kennedy


The Schnee household

SLAP! Weiss' face stung as her father slapped her again. No one came to her aid as her father beat down on her because she was a faunus. An arctic fox faunus, to be exact.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH!" Weiss' father screamed as he held her by her throat. "YOU WANT MY LOVE AND AFFECTION? YOU WANT TO DYE YOUR HAIR? YOU WANT TO HAVE FRIENDS? HELL NO! YOU ARE AN UNHOLY PIECE OF SCUM THAT DOESN'T EVEN DESERVE TO BE ALIVE! WHY THE HELL WOULD I GIVE YOU A HUG BECAUSE OF A FLEA-RIDDEN NOTE THAT SAYS,' I love you daddy'" He said the last sentence with a falsetto, cutesy- wootsy voice.

Weiss' face turned an unnatural shade of blue as she attempted to get any amount of precious oxygen. Her "Father" dropped her on the floor as she gasped for air. Her father stormed out as she crawled back up the stairs to her room using the maid's passage. She passed Kia, a donkey faunus maid, who gave her a quick hug and continued down the passage. Kia had always comforted the young fox when she was upset. Weiss finally got to her room and bolted the door shut, and curled up on her white comforter and traced the swirls absentmindedly as she silently let her tears flow freely. she rolled over and grabbed her stuffed dolphin, Flippers. After about an hour of crying her heart out and nuzzling Flippers, she decided to go for a walk. She grabbed her woolen coat and snow boots, and snuck out, still holding Flippers, and started towards her community's park.

The Rose Xiao-Long household

(Flashback- three years ago)

Ruby blinked. She looked at the small baby in front of her. She had been confused when her mom started crying out in pain, and her father rushed her to the hospital, and came back a day later with a new addition to the Rose Xiao-Long family. But now it made sense.

"This is your little brother, Tai." Taiyang said.


After the day Tai was born, Ruby started to become neglected. It started out subtle, Yang played with Tai a bit more than Ruby, more attention was on Tai, but it slowly got more extreme. No more kisses goodnight or the words 'I love you' were given to Ruby, and Yang read to Tai instead of Ruby. Ruby loved Tai a lot, but had lost the love of her family, and whenever she had asked to play with Yang, the response would be,

"I already play with you all the time. Let Tai have some time with me."

Gradually her family completely turned their back on her and ignored her completely. No more love for poor little Ruby...


(Flashback- five days ago)

During the winter break of her first year at Signal academy, Ruby had taken Tai out ice skating on the frozen pond behind their house. Tai had been quick to his feet, so at three years old, he was a good ice skater. Ruby did little leaps and twirls on the ice, and Tai would giggle and clap every time she landed perfectly, and it made her happy that someone cared about her. Ruby discovered that if Tai and her skated at each other, then grabbed each other's hands, they would spin around in circles. Their mother had warned them, or more accurately, Tai, not to go near the part of the pond where the ice was thin. They skated at each other, and grabbed each other's arms. They let go, and Ruby fell on her butt, she noticed Tai was wobbling dizzily towards the thin ice. It seemed to go in slow motion, as Ruby started to call to Tai for him to get away from the thin ice, the ice cracked, and he fell into the sub- zero water. Ruby dove in and grabbed Tai, while fruitlessly calling for her parents. Her parents wailed and yelled at her that she had wanted Tai dead and Ruby was crying and shivering violently from her borderline hypothermia. Yang came out to see what the commotion was about, and after seeing her favored sibling dead in her parents arms, her eyes started to blaze with her newfound semblance. She yelled at Ruby and walked up to the young girl, and punched her over and over and over until her fists started to bleed. Then she dropped Ruby on the ground and looked at the face covered in blood.

"Please, Yang, listen to me! It was an accident, I swear! I loved him so much, just as much as you! Yang, please! Yang!" Ruby pleaded pitifully as she reached up towards her sister, her tears making clear tracks through the blood.

"Shut up, you murderer. You never loved him. You wanted him Dead." Yang spat at Ruby, and kicked her into the hole of freezing water, her blood staining the ice. Ruby contemplated letting herself die, to take away the pain, but decided that her family would eventually love her again. But things just went downhill from there...